Contrary to all those cranky newspaper columns about how every last inch of asphalt needs to be allocated to motor vehicles, bike lanes can actually move more people with less street space than general traffic lanes. Here’s a good example from Toronto. Biking Toronto reports that while bike lanes take up just 19 percent of College Street, cyclists now account for […]

When you’re riding the bus or the train, an unexpected delay is the last thing you need. If transit agencies want to know how well they’re doing and how they can improve service, they have to track how reliable their service is for riders. But not all reliability metrics are created equal, writes TransitCenter. Some agencies track their performance in a […]

There’s a good deal of empirical evidence that narrower travel lanes are safer for everyone because they slow motorist speeds. On a perceptual level, narrow streets just feel more inviting, writes Katie Matchett at Network blog Where the Sidewalk Starts. Matchett looked at Jewel Street in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego, which varies in width. She shows how, as it transforms from […]

Cleveland is finally getting around to establishing guidelines to foster walkable development around rail stops — which is in very short supply. Some stations are surrounded by little more than vacant industrial space or parking lots. (One of the stops on the underused Waterfront Line, called “Muni Parking,” is in the middle of the enormous City […]

When advocating for a street redesign that will take some space away from cars, it’s common to run up against this classic brush-off from your local transportation agency: The federal government won’t allow it. Well, the Federal Highway Administration recently went on the record to shoot down that excuse. The FHWA doesn’t require states and local governments to speed cars through streets, […]

When cyclists and pedestrians are injured in traffic crashes in D.C., there’s a big legal obstacle standing in the way of justice. That obstacle is a legal standard called “contributory negligence.” Now the City Council is poised to strike down that rule and replace it with the more widely used and fairer “comparative fault” standard, report Tracy Hadden […]

A change to D.C.’s zoning code will allow homeowners to build and rent out a basement apartment, or an apartment over the garage, without the long, expensive hassle of obtaining special permission. Advocates in many high-rent cities, like Austin, have fought for this kind of legislation. It not only helps alleviate the housing crunch, it also creates better […]

Boston’s 4.7-mile Green Line extension is supposed to bring light rail service to some of the nation’s most densely populated neighborhoods, but skyrocketing construction costs have threatened to sink the project. After the price tag ballooned to $3 billion last year, about a 50 percent increase, the project was in danger of being cancelled altogether. Yesterday, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation […]